Click on the logo above
to visit the website for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Schuyler County

Guest
Column: State Sen. Tom O'Mara

"Staying the course for Upstate"

ALBANY, Jan. 28 -- When New York’s current Governor
Cuomo, Governor Andrew Cuomo, first unveiled his plan for 10 regional
economic development councils back in 2011, his first year in office,
it led one long-time western New York reporter back into the archives
to recall when he covered a previous governor who tried something similar
back in his first year in office in 1984.

“If all that sounds familiar,” the reporter wrote referring
to the present-day Governor Cuomo, “it’s probably because
the governor’s father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, made that same announcement
27 years ago.”

That’s
right, a regionally targeted approach to economic development, especially
targeted to Upstate, has been tried in various ways by most governors
throughout the past generation.

But not like this. All that was then, this is now, and while the Upstate
New York economy has largely been a story of steady decline over the past
30 years (at best, in some places, a story of highs and lows, starts and
stops), and while governor after governor since Governor Mario Cuomo has
pledged to turn around Upstate’s future and fortunes, hopefully
this current effort takes a permanent hold. So I’ll say again what
I’ve said repeatedly for the past two years: We need to stay this
course for Upstate.

Now it’s Year No. 3 and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recently
released 2013-14 state budget proposal stays focused on Upstate in several
ways, including plans for:

-- Innovation Hotspots and Tech Transfer, which the administration pegs
as a “multi-faceted plan to foster the commercialization of innovative
ideas from our academic institutions” via the designation of 10
“high-tech innovation incubators at locations affiliated with higher
education institutions to encourage private-sector growth”;

-- a new Innovation Venture Capital Fund to provide incentives for the
creation of new businesses and to facilitate the critical transition from
"ideas and research to marketable products”;

-- the NY Works Economic Development Fund for capital grants “that
support job creation and retention and fund investments that facilitate
business expansion and the attraction of new businesses”;

-- the Next Generation Job Linkage Program to distribute performance
grants to encourage community colleges to place students in high-demand
jobs;

-- Market NY, a largely Upstate-oriented effort to boost the promotion
of growing upstate agriculture- and tourism-related industries like Greek
yogurt, craft brewing, and distilling, as well as anchors like the wine-and-grape
industry; and

-- a third round of funding to support the work of the 10 Regional Economic
Development Councils created in 2011.

On this last point, the regional councils, including those covering
the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes, have directed dollars-and-cents investments
to key economic development projects and infrastructure improvements.
But equally important is that they’ve established the public-private
partnerships and the sense of collective achievement that promises long-term
commitment and energy.

Take a look at the comprehensive blueprints each of the councils have
advanced, which you can find on www.regionalcouncils.ny.gov, and you’ll
read strategies that summon the resources of the public sector, the private
sector, higher education, manufacturers, small business owners, researchers,
innovators and so many others. You’ll find plans that pinpoint our
strengths and recognize the importance of addressing issues from agriculture
to transportation, broadband development to telemedicine, energy to workforce
training, and so much more in between.

You’ll find, above all, testaments to staying the course for Upstate.

As a result, we all keep on winning because this ongoing effort in and
of itself can only keep producing positive results. It means that on a
regional basis we keep meeting, working, fine tuning, sharing resources,
developing ideas, rallying support and moving forward. The bottom line
of this effort is that it promises to keep regional leaders focused and
cooperating on the creativity, vision and nuts-and-bolts planning that
produces jobs and creates stronger economies built for the long run. There’s
a powerful argument being made that that’s exactly the point: this
unprecedented (in many regions) cooperation and desire to succeed is worth
more than anything money could buy. Ten distinct routes have been mapped,
each one pointing toward a revitalized economy, growing communities, exciting
opportunities, a better business climate and more opportunities for workers.

But we can and should be even bolder. Last year, for example, I co-sponsored
a “New Jobs-NY” plan. Among numerous provisions, New Jobs-NY
called for an unprecedented phase-out of the state corporate franchise
tax and personal income tax paid by manufacturers; providing small businesses
with a significant corporate tax rate cut; a Hire Now-NY tax credit for
each new job a business creates; and a Hire-A-Vet tax credit for any business
hiring a returning veteran. It was bold, and we’re going to push
for its approval again this year. I think it’s especially important
to target a manufacturing resurgence as the foundation of future private-sector
Upstate job growth and economic security for Upstate communities and workers.

So we’ve taken important steps over the past two years to stay
the course for Upstate. Still, we’ve seen too many similar efforts
go up in smoke too many times before. This time, the commitment can’t
lose steam.